Southeastern California Conference
PHOTOS BY KENNETH GRIMES
New Senior Pastor Installed at Riverside Kansas Avenue Church
Ainsworth “Keith” Morris, new senior pastor, listens as members pray for him.
Members fill the church on Dec. 17 to welcome their new senior pastor.
Conference officials and members of the Riverside Kansas Avenue church surround Ainsworth “Keith” Morris, new senior pastor.
Jonathan Park, SECC executive secretary, introduces church members to their new senior pastor.
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insworth “Keith” Morris joined the Riverside Kansas Avenue church as the new senior pastor on Dec. 17. He has over 22 years of ministry experience from Jamaica, Ontario and, most recently, New York. Not everyone starts off knowing what career they want to have. Morris grew up in Jamaica and wanted to be a medical doctor. It was not until after college, when he went through a series of personal conversion experiences, that he became increasingly interested in theology. He returned to Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica and received his B.A. in Religion and Theology in 1994. Even then, he still was not sure he was ready. “When I graduated, I still felt a high level of personal inadequacy,” Morris said. “I wasn’t desirous of public speaking. Always shy, I wanted to be in the background. I didn’t even know at that time that I wanted to do ministry.”
Morris became employed by the East Jamaican Conference and was assigned to assist Glenville Carr, a senior pastor, for one year. “He made my first assignment extremely comfortable and helped me recognize my place in ministry. He encouraged me,” Morris said. Morris was the pastor at Goshen Temple church in Brooklyn, New York, for six years. While there, he received a call from Southeastern California Conference asking him to move to California. He wanted to accept, but he was not comfortable leaving his church in New York just yet, because it was under construction. During the next two years, he received two more calls from SECC. He had finished building the church in July 2016 when he received the third call. He agreed to come to Kansas Avenue and moved across the country in December.
“I couldn’t help seeing it as God telling me for the third time, ‘You need to do this. Get up and move,’” he said. Morris enjoys the outreach program with the church members, along with community outreach and several other ministries that continue to run throughout the week. He plans to work with the church committee on research previously gathered on their community’s demographics and needs. Morris said he intends to utilize the information to do ministry that would be contextually relevant. According to Morris, “You should come to Kansas Avenue, because we provide the opportunity for a great, balanced worship; deep Bible studies; relevant, practical preaching; and warm and friendly fellowship.”
Jessica Anzai March 2017
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